china #Chinese_Regime #Communist_Party #corruption #military A Top Former Chinese Military Official Purged: The...

In a dramatic gesture on Monday four high-ranking officials in China were stripped of their Communist Party memberships on the same day—one of them a former top military official, all of them guilty of affiliations with the old guard leadership group that Xi Jinping, the current Party leader, is systematically purging. Xu Caihou, the most prominent target, was until late 2012 the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, which exercises Party control over the People’s Liberation Army. That post, granted to him by Jiang Zemin, the Party leader from 1989 until 2002, made him one of the most powerful men in the Chinese military. Jiang’s clout in personnel and policy continued for at least a decade after he formally left office. Analysts of China’s political system suggest that with these purges, Xi Jinping is rooting out Jiang’s lingering influence, held tenaciously b...